Kringlor

Greetings everyone. Before I forget – if you didn’t already, please remember to play along with my little game to celebrate my 2-year anniversary in blogging. Suggest some ingredients to me and I’ll make a dish and even name it after you! The suggestion form can be found in my previous post – it’s going to be lots of fun… I’ve already had some great suggestions so I’m really looking forward to seeing which one I’ll end up making!

Today I’m going to be making kringlor, which many of you may know as kringles (apparently the name comes from the Old Norse word “kringla”, meaning “circle”). This scandinavian pastry has various forms over the world, and apparently in the US they’re rolled out of Danish pastry dough. The basic Swedish one is rather more simple. A slightly sweetened dough, traditionally leavened with Baker’s Ammonia, topped with pearl sugar and baked.

Despite their history they’re surprisingly uncommon, especially when compared to other pastries and cakes. A quick Google search for kringlor yielded around 11,700 results. Conversely, a search for kladdkaka, another Swedish delight I’ve posted about a while back, returned 203,000 results – quite a difference in popularity! I’d like to say that I’m going to present to you “traditional” Swedish kringlor, but there’s three problems with that. First – they’re often made with something like filmjölk, an absolutely divine, sharp-tasting, pourable yoghurt-like substance which I’ve never found outside Scandinavia. At the least, one should normally use yoghurt, but I had none either, so I used milk. Secondly – I had no Baker’s Ammonia. Another ingredient which isn’t that common outside of Scandinavian countries as far as I can tell. Just as well really, since I had no yoghurt, so I swapped it out for baking powder. Finally – as I found out, I am really bad at rolling and shaping kringlor. At one point I burst into uncontrollable (and childish) giggles, because the “thing” I had made looked remarkably like something a dog leaves on the side-walk, but I persevered and finally had some trays of something worth baking!

While not exactly low-carb or low-gluten they do make a nice snack. Barely sweet, they make a lovely accompaniment with a cup of tea or coffee during those times when you don’t feel like something too sugary, but don’t want something completely savoury – this will really hit the spot. If you’re thinking of making these then don’t worry if you can’t find pearl sugar. Find the coarsest sugar you can and just roll the tops of these bad-boys in it before baking. Alternatively, if you wanted to make them that little bit sweeter then you can ice them when they were baked.

I do hope everyone had a great weekend – I’ll be back in a few days when I’ll be going nuts with a new recipe (chestnuts, that is! :)) and this one’s a real beauty, swiftly followed by my two year anniversary post – yay!

Kringlor

Ingredients

680g Plain Flour

400ml Milk

200g Butter

100g Caster Sugar

20g Baking Powder

1 Vanilla pod or 4tsps Vanilla Sugar

Pearl sugar, or coarse sugar to decorate

Instructions

Start off by preheating your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Next, add the flour, milk, caster sugar, and baking powder to a bowl. Add in the vanilla sugar, or, if using, cut the vanilla pod down its length and scrape out the seeds using the blade of a knife and add to the bowl.

Melt the butter in a pan and then make a well in the flour and milk in the bowl. Pour in the butter and then mix together well to form a smooth, slightly sticky dough. Add a bit of extra flour if you need, but keep the dough as moist as you can while still being manageable.

Tear off lumps of dough which are a bit larger than a golf ball in size. Roll out the lumps to a length of about 25 – 30cm and then form into a pretzel shape. I opted for a slightly easier version which you can make by simply bringing the ends of the length around to the mid-point, crossing over each other as they pass the middle.

Place the kringlor face down into a bowl of pearl or coarse sugar and carefully transfer them (face up) to a baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 13-15 minutes until just starting to brown. Allow to cool and enjoy!

Comments

Charles, I’m always so thrilled to see such names as “kringlor” or “kladdkaka” on yoru blog! It is always an announcement of a new exotic discovery! These sweet buns look fabulous and I can assure you they are beautifully shaped and very appetising! I love slightly sweet, soft buns… I could eat them forever. Is filmjölk similar to kefir? If yes, it can be found in every organic shop in France. Kefir is more sour than yogurt, so maybe it would be a better substitute. What do you think? I have already read about filmjölk at Three Cookies blog I think a long time ago.
I haven’t had my breakfast today so I feel extremely hungry now!

Thanks Sissi! Filmjölk (or usually just called “fil”) isn’t like kefir – it’s much thicker. I don’t really know a way to describe it adequately. It’s like a runny yoghurt, but with a sour, but also creamy flavour. If you ever have a chance to go to Sweden I hope you have a chance to try it. We once found something like it – they were selling little muesli bowl snacks in my local lunch shop called “Rumblers”. Half the pack was crunchy muesli and half the pack was something which was almost identical to fil. Unfortunately it was only enough for one (tiny) portion, so not really suitable for other uses!

WHat you describe makes me think of something I buy here all the time and which is called “lait acidulé” and which is low-fat compared to sour cream, but almost as thick as yogurt… I have read that bacteria in filmjölk are different, so it’s not the same alas. I have to wait for Swedish holidays to taste it

I’ve been denied fresh bread like this for a while now (the nephew bought a loaf of some healthy multi-grain whole wheat stuff while out shopping) so I’m ready to reach through the monitor for a few of these goodies with a softened cream cheese spread. Yummy.

What a fun series of posts you have coming up! I can’t wait! These look really tasty. They look like the pretzels my mom used to make for us. But those have yeast and are topped with salt, so the similarities end at the looks I think. I bet we would really enjoy these. They look delicious and like they would be easy to go a little crazy on (at least I know I would). Your giggle fit made me giggle too! I have no doubt the kids would have said the same thing!

Hi Kristy – initially I was planning on making only one, but actually some of the suggestions I’ve received looked like so much fun that I’m going to make at least one “random” one, and then pick another one or two

They sell something here called “Laban” (it’s not the same as labneh… it’s sold in bottles and drunk like milk)… I think actually I could use something like that – I’ll have to give it a try, but definitely, milk works too, haha, but I think it’s the bacteria in the fil (or yogurt) that “activates” the baker’s ammonia or sodium bicarbonate.

Ah, of course, you’re right – my wife even said the same thing when I was asking her if we had any “hjorthornssalt” in the house (Baker’s ammonia) but I forgot and got it confused with the bacteria I guess.

I’m always amazed when you are able to just simply change a recipe.. “no filmjölk,I will just use baking powder”.. I would be sitting stunned and phoning every shop in town trying to find the exact ingredient. Your switching out of ingredients worked perfectly, even if shaping them gave you a bit of a trial. I would love one of these for tea, as I am not a big fan of sugary treats at the moment!

Hi Barbara, it was a bit of a gamble The baker’s ammonia, which is an old-school style raising agent, and I think it’s activated by the fil, so swapping it out with baking powder instead I figured should work, since baking powder is activated differently. I can’t testify how “well” it worked, as I never tried kringlor made the old-fashioned way, but they didn’t last long, so that should count for something

Hi Eva, sorry – maybe I wasn’t clear enough. Baker’s Ammonia is different to baking powder. There’s at least four leaveners which are commonly used in baking – baker’s ammonia, baking soda, baking powder and of course yeast. Baker’s ammonia is quite old-fashioned and not seen so much now – at least not in France. It’s still very common in Sweden, and I think it’s activated by the bacteria in fil or yogurt, hence the usage of it. As I had only milk I decided to switch up to a more moden leavener.

I’m not familiar with kringlor or kringles, but these do look like pretzels except pretzels are topped with coarse salt, not sugar. I’ve never made them so other than the look, I’m not sure if they are close or not. These do look very tasty and a nice accompaniment for my afternoon tea.

You gave a me quiet a giggle imagining you giggling uncontrollably. I get that too when whatever I shape turns out weird …. sidewalk product? Hehe … sometimes.
They look pretty good to me! You must have had plenty of fun!

I always learn something new when I go to your blog Charles! Love hoq these kringlors or kirngles or whatever you may call them look.They kind of remind me of pretzels. Always been a bit fascinated by the look of plaited breads and this looks just gorgeous!

I’ve never heard of these and from just looking at the pic wasnt expecting them to be like a Danish, as in the US. At first, I thought heavy, but they seem more delicate and the vanilla running through must perfume each little bite so beautifully. I enjoy learning of these new foods (to me). Im a huge chestnut fan..so can’t wait to see what you’re up to!!

These look really delicious, Charles! Id like to make them, but maybe I’ll use sesame seeds to decorate (I dont mind them with ‘sweet’ pastries.
I missed the submissions from the last post, but I’ll put something here if there’s still a chance at it I hope you’re up for a bit of sweet, sorry though I can only think of 3 ingredients, but can we make a deal that these are the minimum (and you can have other things with them?)

Hi Fati, thanks for your submission – you were in luck – I hadn’t yet done the draw, so I added your entry in. You can see who “won” in my most recent post Sesame seeds sounds like a fine idea, although the dough really isn’t very sweet at all, so you may want to consider increasing the sugar in the dough a bit if you do try it with sesame seeds!

At first I thought these are Pretzels but you said it’s more like Danish. Interesting. I think I’ve never tried before and Wiki mentioned the Danish town in Solvang California where I’ve been to. I’ll definitely remember to check this out when I visit Solvang again. Lately it’s hard to remember names but I think the Pretzel-like shape seems like the common shape. You always make baking so easy and give me hope. Hehee.

Hi Nami – you shouldn’t worry so much about baking… especially when every baked thing you post (I know it’s not “so” common for you, but you have some things) seems to be a huge success every time! These are super easy to make… simple and tasty

Low gluten – lol – I’ll have to share that term with my celiac clients. Nice twisty buns Charles and they do sound like just the right combination of savoury/sweet. Very pretty too! (I think you did a bang-up job with the dough – is there a video clip of you giggling uncontrollably?). Looking forward to the chestnuts!!

LOL, you just made me realise what a silly thing that was to say actually… I wasn’t thinking at all… I just automatically added in “low-” I guess because I’d been talking about carbs. “Low gluten”… ha! I won’t bother editing it out… I’ll keep it as testament to my writing fail this time! Sadly no video of me giggling. I’ll remember next time though!

We are able to buy filmjolk and bakers’ ammonia in my area. We live in rural Western NY State.
Grocery store, Wegman’s ( large northeast US chain) carries Iggy brand filmjolk, which is very good.
Local bakeries and some pharmacies carry the bakers’ ammonia. We use both for many other baking/cooking projects

Welcome! My name is Charles and this is FiveEuroFood. My goal with this site is to offer you recipes which reflect that cooking tasty food from scratch is not only easy and fun, but cheap as well. Read More →